Cuisine of The Thirteen Colonies

The cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies includes the foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of the British colonies in North America before the establishment of the United States in the 1770s and 1780s. It was derived from familiar traditions from the colonists’ home countries in the British Isles and particularly England. Many agricultural items came to the New World through trade with England and the West Indies. Certain familiar items grew better in the Old World than others, and this led to a dependence on imports which drove the daily lives of the colonists. However, the colonial diet was increasingly supplemented by new animal and plant foods indigenous to the New World.

In the years leading up to 1776, a number of events led to a drastic change in the diet of the American colonists. Taxes and tariffs levied by England increased the costs of goods and caused colonists to hold a grudge toward the British monarchy and British imports. Import tariffs and taxes, and other issues, eventually led to the American Revolution. As they could no longer depend on British and West Indian imports, agricultural practices of the colonists began to focus on becoming completely self-sufficient.